1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to a passenger safety device for vehicles, and more particularly to a passive restraint for passengers in high speed vehicles which is operable in many embodiments by utilizing the "Ram" effect of outside air entering the vehicle at high speeds to inflate a passive restraint device such as an air bag.
2. Description of The Prior Art
Work has been going on in the transportation industry for many years to devise a suitable passive restraint system to protect passengers in situations of rapid stops or crashes of the vehicles they are riding in. In recent years, attention has centered around inflatable restraints, such as the air bag, as one of the most suitable passive restraint devices, as it is kept completely out of the way of the passenger during operation of the vehicle, and thus, is even more convenient than devices such as automotive seat belts, etc. Because of the focus of attention on air bags as one of the main passive restraint devices being looked at, and because of the heavy weight of the gas cylinders which are needed to inflate air bags rapidly in crash situations, such air bags have only been looked at in connection with ground based passenger type vehicles such as cars, trucks and buses, etc., and relatively little work has gone in to the providing of air bags for higher speed vehicles such as "bullet trains" and aircraft. It is believed that the application of inflatable bags for "bullet trains", aircraft and other high speed vehicles has been over looked for two primary reasons. First, again, is the weight of the compressed gases which must be carried with the air bag, and secondly, is the failure to realize that the ram effect of the air at high speeds can be used as the major force behind inflation of the air bags in such vehicles, thus eliminating the problem of weight in many instances.
In determining whether or not to proceed with a patent application of my invention, I caused a search to be made of the records of the U.S. Patent Office and located the following patents:
______________________________________ PATENTEE U.S. Pat. No. YEAR ______________________________________ Ben A. Stewart 3,909,037 09/75 Bernard M. Pech 3,929,350 12/75 David P. Hass 3,624,810 11/71 Hattori Et al. 4,043,572 08/77 Per O. Weman 4,126,325 11/78 Per O. Weman 3,994,506 11/76 O. W. Boblitz 3,351,381 08/66 ______________________________________
A study of these patents shows that none of them have considered the use of the ram effect of outside air traveling at high speed to inflate the bags, and further, the study of these patents revealed that pressure shock inside the passenger compartment of motor vehicles is a serious problem in the art, and made apparent the benefits of utilizing lower pressure outside atmosphere for pressure relief, as will be described concerning my invention.
Thus, my invention solves several long standing problems in the art, that of the weight associated with passive restraints such as air bags, the pressure shock connected with their use, and the problem of how to provide a passive restraint system for high speed vehicles.